Story By: John Feng, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report
Video Credit: AsiaWire
This is the fat leech which doctors found squirming up and down a young boy’s windpipe reportedly causing him to cough up blood.
The boy from Rongjiang County in China’s south-western province of Guizhou is believed to have ingested the eight-centimetre (three-inch) leech while drinking from a mountain stream.
His father, Mr Pan, took him to a local clinic after he began experiencing coughing fits, which were often accompanied by blood.
Local doctors were unable to treat the boy, who was transferred to the Guiyang Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital in the provincial capital on 26th August.
Video Credit: AsiaWire
By that time, Mr Pan’s son had reportedly been coughing non-stop for more than 10 days.
Doctor Sun Yongfeng, who is Deputy Head of Respiratory Medicine at the facility, soon discovered the cause of the boy’s discomfort.
He said: “When he was admitted last night, we performed a bronchoscopy and found a brown organism in his trachea.
“It would move in and out of his windpipe, so our first thought was that it was a leech.”
Footage from the child’s hospital visit shows the large parasite squirming around the boy’s throat, occupying nearly the entire width of his trachea.
The medic’s suspicions were confirmed when he later reached into the boy’s throat with a pair of forceps yanked the leech out.
“It was alive!” Doctor Sun said.
Mr Pan revealed his son is currently on his summer holiday and has been spending time in their rural hometown.
The boy plays in the nearby mountains and has a habit of drinking from rivers and streams, the parent said.
Doctor Sun believes he may have accidentally ingested a leech, which latched on to his trachea and lived off his blood.
The boy is recovering after his procedure and is not expected to suffer any long-term effects.
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